Change Your Image
denise-roman
Reviews
Legionnaire's Trail (2020)
Endurance & character
This movie is about duty, endurance and character. I guess spoiled rich societies no longer have these values, hence they give a 1-point review. Sad. I enjoyed every second of the movie. Survival is not for the faint of heart. This is a movie soldiers and survivors would appreciate. Respect!
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2020)
Imitation of an imitation
The original Borat was a good satire, a good imitation of reality, mostly traditional American, with a little Eastern European twist (the so-called Kazakhstan scenes were shot in a Roma village in Romania).
I laughed, blushed, tried to stay cool most of the movie, although many times my common sense felt under attack. Ultimately, I decided to take the movie as an original parody.
The "second" Borat now is an imitation of the first Borat. The imitation of an imitation fails because it tries to maintain a form, while losing its substance. The new Borat loosely reminded me of the risqué jokes of the original Borat, but with barely any genuinely fresh fun and with practically no new message. I wish this Borat imitation by Borat didn't happen, so the first Borat remained a valuable original.
I gave a point for bringing up the theme of the Holocaust and having it inadvertently recognized. Thank you!
UPDATE:
The clown now thinks his movie has become reality, that he is above the legal institutions and law of the United States. He gives directions in current political events as if he is directing his movie. He thinks he is that important. The line between reality and movie has been crossed. Bad art now wants to become reality.
The Brokenwood Mysteries (2014)
Loved it but...
Excellent mysteries series in the tradition of Midsomer Murders, yet with a New Zealand flair. I loved each episode, the characters, the humor, country music, plots, quirkiness of people and beauty of landscapes. I would love to see the series go on. Just one thing: the forensic doctor Gina is adorable in her shriveling dark humor and exceptional medical knowledge. The writers didn't know how to resolve her character and in the last episodes made the others bash her: "Oh, she's Russian!" Not ok, not fair - and I'm not even Russian. And what if she ended up with Mike? I've always rooted for her, and at some point the narrative seemed to veer that way.
Rest assured I'll watch a new season of this superb series.
Hunters (2020)
Shande for episode 10
Happy to finally see a movie that brings back in the American consciousness the tragedy of the Holocaust. With so much rampant anti-Semitism worldwide, this was long due.
I am daughter of a child Holocaust survivor from Eastern Europe and proud to be an American citizen.
But I do not agree with the underlying politics transcending the main narrative. When you sacrifice the narrative of the Holocaust to the narrative of politically correct politics you end up with a parody.
Revised review after seeing episode 10: Shande!
Watch instead the documentary Hunting Down the Nazis.
Our Boys (2019)
Deep movie, conflicted as to why
I thought the movie was deep, compassionate, true - on all accounts.
As a European Jewish woman living in the US for the past 25 years (with a father who is a child Holocaust survivor), and seeing the attacks on our Jewish identity throughout Europe and more recently the US, while the only country that still helps us is the United States, I really cannot understand WHY. When Jewish people are killed every day in Israel, why did this movie have to be shown, as if the killers in Israel are Jewish people? The story may be true, but the context of showing it - with no counter-balance to us being killed in Israel, Europe and more recently the US - is, unfortunately, problematic.
Please show the US audiences a well balanced offer of Israeli movies to speak for truth and also defend us, Jewish people from everywhere.
Thank you.
Dom s bashenkoy (2012)
Haunting
The child's innocence, heartbreaking voyage, and quiet smartness are haunting. The black-and-white images create a bare bones sense of emotional anesthesia in the midst of despair. It is winter in this movie and I felt cold in the midst of summertime: the hospital metal bed, the snow, a world without a chance.
Losing in Love (2016)
Poem to LA
The writer is a poet at heart. His lines about wounded love on the beach, watching her running away, hurt. His characters create the perfect LA melange of hope and depression, ephemeral presentism and the forever possibilty of a tomorrow. This is my city, I could recognize it in DTLA, Santa Monica, beaches, waves and offices, in death, love, and sunsets.